In many sports shoes, running shoes and the like, shock absorbing members (shock absorbing structures) are incorporated in order to absorb and alleviate (shock absorption) impact which is applied to legs (feet, knees and the like) of those who wear the shoes. A number of research and development activities have been earnestly carried out, and various proposals have been made as the shock absorbing structures as above.
The present applicant has also realized excellent shock absorbing performance so far by adopting a unique structural design in which a shock absorbing member of a gel or the like is combined with a midsole material such as EVA (ethylene-acetic acid vinyl copolymer) as an example which makes the excellent shock absorbing characteristic and reduction in weight compatible (refer to Patent Literature 1, for example).
Many of these shock absorbing structures have caused shock absorbing members of an EVA, gel materials and the like to undergo compression deformation from the vertical direction to absorb shock, so far.
Meanwhile, in order to enable shoes users (wearers) and those who think about purchase of shoes to feel shock absorbing characteristics actually by seeing and touching, soft shock absorbing members (shock absorbing materials) can be exposed on the external appearances of the shoes with wide areas as much as possible. However, if the shock absorbing members like them are configured with relatively large thickness dimensions, the shock absorbing members become the cause of reducing stability when undergoing compression deformation, and are heavy with respect to EVA with increase in the area to be the cause of cost increase, so that the shock absorbing members also have an aspect of being desirably configured with the smallest possible use amount.